“Journeyman”: Ep. 5: I do believe it’s getting better (can’t get much worse)

Ep. 5 was probably the strongest yet for “J’Man.” The story of an ex-Army Ranger and a Cambodian refugee searching for one another during the bad ‘ol days of the late ’70s gasoline shortages was clean and crisp and truly resonated. Plus there was a satisfying number of tantalizing clues dropped to explain why Dan jumps through time like D.B. Cooper jumped from airplanes.

Not a Time Traveler

What we liked about this episode Ep. 5

We actually laughed when Zach saw his father’s “magic” as he vanished from the room. It might be a good thing for the kid to know where his father’s been disappearing to all those times. Like Kate said, maybe 7 is the best age to believe in time travel.

Dan’s visit to his Dad, a photo journalist who spent time in Vietnam. We liked the authenticity of the tap-tap-tapping of so many typewriters in the pre-computer newsroom. And the fact that the producers used a different actor to play Dan’s father, rather than just slapping a moustache on McKidd’s upper lip.

That the reverberations from the gun incident from Ep. 4 have yet to play out.

That Jesse, Dan’s personal researcher at the newspaper, is a former blogger. And that when he suffers a pang of conscientiousness while researching the ex-Army Ranger for Dan, the editor-in-chief tells him “don’t stop doing what got you hired.” (Is he insinuating that bloggers are unethical?)

The discussion with Professor Langley about the time travel book that Dan is writing — a discussion that wasn’t about the time travel book that Dan is writing. And the fact that the newspaper doesn’t validate.

What we didn’t like from Ep. 5

The long shot of Moon Bloodgood walking with Dan down a San Francisco street.

The fact that the writers get so much of today’s newspaper world so right — circulation declines, ad revenue declines, possible buyouts, consultants complaining and the Internet decimating classified advertising — and then are clueless enough to have someone say, “newspapers are not profit machines.” Say what?

That, if things are so dire at the newspaper, Dan has a personal researcher. In the real world, he’d go to a research department.

That Dan can’t find a way to get the story Dylan McCleen story into the paper.

Prediction: The same way the gun may come back to haunt Dan, so too, will be the wads of cash he brought back to the present from Capt. Richie.